- Sheffield Assessment Project (started September 2014)

Assessment in the New National Curriculum – ‘Life After Levels’

Information for Parents & Carers

‘Life After Levels’Information for Parents & Carers

Key Questions

Why is this change happening?

Which children in school will be affected?

What will replace the levels?

How will teachers decide how my child is doing?

What information will I receive about how my child is doing?

Where has this new approach come from?

What are the important things to remember?

Why is this change happening?

“… the current system of national curriculum levels and level descriptions will be removed and not replaced.”

Department for Education (July 2013)

o There has been a new National Curriculum from September 2014.

o The existing levels don’t work as a way of assessing children’s attainment against the new curriculum.

o The Government have not replaced levels and have left it up to schools to design their own assessment framework.

“Schools need to be conscious that the new curriculum is not in alignment with the old national curriculum levels.”

NAHT Commission on Assessment (February 2014)

Which children in school will be affected?

Year Group This Year (2014-15)

FS2 Still assessed in the same way(transition tool will be used as they go into Y1)

Y1 New system – attainment steps

Y2 New system-attainment steps from Sept 2015

Y3 New system – attainment steps

Y4 New system – attainment steps

Y5 New system – attainment steps

Y6 New system-attainment steps from Sept 2015

o Children in Foundation Stage are not affected by these changes.o Children in Y2 and Y6 will remain on the old curriculum and be assessed by levels for one more year so they aren’t disadvantaged.

o Children in Y1, Y3, Y4 & Y5 will now be assessed using a new system of attainment steps. o From September 2015 children in Y2 & Y6 will also start to be assessed using attainment steps.o It will take time for the new system to be as accurate or robust.

What will replace the levels?

o Attainment Steps are used to describe Y1/Y3/Y4/Y5 children’s attainment in maths, reading, writing and SPaG (spelling, punctuation & grammar). o The steps are organised in the same way that the new curriculum is, so that they provide expectations for each stage of attainment.o Just as before each class have children at lots of different steps (e.g. Y4 children are not all at a Y4 stage of attainment between steps 25-27).o The new curriculum is harder so children are likely to start lower down the scale. New content particularly for Maths and SPAG needs to be taught from previous year groups too.

Step Appropriate Curriculum

1-15 Pre-Y1 attainment stages

16Curriculum

Year 1

Entering

17 Developing

18 Secure

19Curriculum

Year 2

Entering

20 Developing

21 Secure

22Curriculum

Year 3

Entering

23 Developing

24 Secure

25Curriculum

Year 4

Entering

26 Developing

27 Secure

28Curriculum

Year 5

Entering

29 Developing

30 Secure

31Curriculum

Year 6

Entering

32 Developing

33 Secure

34 + Post-Y6 attainment stages

oTeachers use a grid, like this one, as a tool to support them in making the decision about which step a child is on now.o The grids do this by identifying the proportion of the appropriate curriculum that a child has mastered.

How will teachers decide how my child is doing?

What information will I receive about how my child is doing?

Step Curriculum Source

1-15 Pre-Y1 attainment stages

16Curriculum

Year 1

Entering

17 Developing

18 Secure

19Curriculum

Year 2

Entering

20 Developing

21 Secure

22Curriculum

Year 3

Entering

23 Developing

24 Secure

25Curriculum

Year 4

Entering

26 Developing

27 Secure

28Curriculum

Year 5

Entering

29 Developing

30 Secure

31Curriculum

Year 6

Entering

32 Developing

33 Secure

34 + Post-Y6 attainment stages

o Each school will tell parents and carers about children’s attainment as they do now, in meetings, reports from Sept 2015.

o This will now involve steps instead of levels.

o Children in Y2 and Y6 have now started this process from September 2015.o When the Y2/Y6 children take their Y2 and Y6 SATs in May 2016, they will be tested on the new curriculum. This will be reported differently than before (e.g. not with a ‘level’).

Where has this new approach come from?

o The Sheffield Assessment Project was a partnership involving over fifty Sheffield schools, the Local Authority and other organisations.

o It sought to develop an assessment solution for Sheffield, so that schools could continue to work in partnership and children and staff could move between schools which had a common approach.

o The materials the project produced were shared with various national organisations to quality assure them. When the NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers) produced assessment criteria they were designed to work with the STAT Sheffield materials.

o Since September 2014 this approach has been used by hundreds of schools in South Yorkshire and across the country. The materials will continue to be developed using the feedback from all of these schools and organisations.

See also the Information Booklet

o The new curriculum is harder so children will start lower down the scale.o It will take time for teacher assessments to be as accurate as they were before, whilst teachers become familiar with the criteria and more materials are developed to help them make consistent judgements.

What are the important things to remember?